Happy Yachting crowned Swedish J/70 National champion
by J/Boats 6 Oct 2021 00:20 AEDT
2021 Swedish J/70 National Championship © Swedish Sailing Federation
The Swedish National Championship was sailed on the Swedish west coast in Träslövsläge. Thirty-nine teams showed up at the start line. The majority were Swedish teams, but there were also five teams from Finland.
It was a really windy Championship, with winds at 16-24 knots the two first days, and some moderate breeze at 10-14 knots on the last day. The area around Träslövsläge is known to be a surf paradise with exciting waves when the wind is from the sea. For the final day, the wind came from the northeast (the land),and probably many teams were glad about
that. There were many many broaches during the first two days.
There is a good momentum in the Swedish J/70 Class right now with many new teams and boats. The winner and Swedish Champion was the brand new SWE 1563 Happy Yachting with Mikael Lindqvist. It was not the first time for Mikael in a J/70, so he knew the boat well. But they sailed extremely well, especially the second day with four wins. In the end, he defeated the last Champion Jonas Kjellberg with 4 points. Kjellberg did very well the last day, but with just two races that day, it was too little to catch up to Lindqvist.
Both Lindqvist and Kjellberg represent the Royal Swedish Yacht Club (KSSS), and they had many other club members at the start line to compete with. KSSS is leading the J/70 sailing in Sweden with six club-owned boats and around 15 private boats in the local fleet. Although KSSS is dominating with both the number of boats and the top boats, they have to watch their backs. There were many competitive teams there with Olympic sailors and former medalists in the both the J/70 and many other Classes. And we shall of course not forget our Finnish friends from Åland, as two times before the Swedish Champions have been a Finn.
Next year, the Swedish Championship will be in Nynäshamn close to Stockholm; the most famous regatta here was the Olympic regatta in 1912. We believe with Swedish, Finnish, and Norwegian teams will have around 50 boats at the start!
More information here...